T.S. Eliot once described April as the cruelest month. The guy was clearly a Leafs fan.

If you take a look at Google searches for Maple Leafs in April - the month where playoff fates are finalized in the NHL - interest in the Buds basically flatlined after 2004. But this April, searches for the Maple Leafs are outpacing previous years by a factor of two to three hundred percent. Making the playoffs has that sort of effect.

What's also interesting... As you might suspect, searches for the Maple Leafs are very popular in Ontario. But the province responsible for the most Googles-per-capita for the term "Maple Leafs" in April: Newfoundland.

Leafs Nation?

Since 2004, nationwide searches for the Toronto Maple Leafs tend to outpace searches for the Montreal Canadiens. Except in April and May - you know, when it’s time for the playoffs. Well, that trend may be reversed this year. Heading into the first round, searches for the Maple Leafs are outpacing the Habs and Canada’s other playoff contenders (Senators and Canucks) by over 35%.

Not to suggest that Quebecers are anything but diehard fans of Le Tricolore, but searches in Quebec for “Leafs” are keeping pace with searches for “Habs”.

NEWS

Boston Strong

The tragic events in Boston dominated Google searches this past month. Over 25 percent of the top 100 trending searches in Canada were related to the bombings, including trending terms such as Watertown, Chechnya, and the Boston Globe.

Canada Terror Plot

Searches for Via Rail doubled this month as news of an alleged plot to bomb a Via Rail train broke in the news.

Bird Flu

A deadly strain of Bird Flu, H7N9, emerged this past month in China. Worldwide Google searches for “H7N9” spiked in mid-April with the reports of over 20 deaths in rural China linked to this avian flu. In Canada, search interest in this latest deadly flu strain was highest in British Columbia. The response from Chinese health authorities has been rapid, and by the end of the month searches for H7N9 were tapering off on Google

BUSINESS

Real Estate

Despite news of Canada’s housing market cooling down, Google searches for “mortgage calculator” remain near the highest levels since 2008, coming close to the same kind of search volume we saw last year during the first round of the “mortgage wars”. And we’re seeing similar search patterns for the real estate listing website, MLS.

That said, the numbers tell a slightly different story, when broken down by province. Saskatchewan is leading mortgage-related search activity this month, followed by Alberta and Manitoba. Meanwhile, British Columbia searches are 25% off their 2012 high.

Bitcoin

The peer-to-peer digital currency went on a bit of a rollercoaster this month, seeing its value jump to over $260 USD before dropping down to $105. Those ups downs resulted in bitcoin’s largest spike in search activity since the currency’s creation in 2008. Among the top 10 searches this month associated with the virtual cash: “What is Bitcoin?”

ENTERTAINMENT

PSY

The K-Pop sensation behind Gangam Style is back with a new hit. Released on April 12th, Gentleman has set YouTube records for most views in its first 24 hours, most views in any 24 hours,fastest music video to reach 100 million views. Gangnam Style remains the most popular video of all time on YouTube with 1.5 billion views to date.

And Canadians are searching for “Psy” on YouTube even more than our neighbours to the south; and more now than at the height of Psy’s Gangnam style popularity last year.

The "Harlem Shake" had recently challenged Psy and "Gangnam Style" for the top position in pop culture. Psy felt a lot of pressure to satisfy his growing fanbase, saying "Of course I feel more burden than before, because lots of people are watching." The new dance is characterized by fast, hip-swinging movements.

Where’s Nemo? Try Google

Worldwide searches for “42 Wallaby Way” spiked this month with news of a sequel to ‘Finding Nemo’. This fictitious Sydney street address was the mantra for the forgetful blue surgeon fish, Dory, in the 2003 Pixar hit. The sequel “Finding Dory” was announced this month on Ellen (who is the voice of Dory), and is due in theatres in late 2015.

MISCELLANIA

Google Nose Fallout!

Google announced its latest addition to the search engine’s arsenal calledGoogle Nose BETA, where searching for “diaper,” “dumpster,” “airport terminal” or “wet dog” yields results in Google’s "Aromabase." The April Fools joke from Google promised "to offer the sharpest olfactory experience available” in a search engine. Of course, Google Nose is completely fictitious, but that hasn’t stopped Canadians from searching popular terms like “unattended litter box,” “diaper,” “dumpster,” “wet dog” and “airport terminal” ... terms which all appeared in the trending terms for the month.

Canadians love online video. In fact, we are consistently global leaders in online video viewership and engagement, according to comScore. As a result, YouTube has become a key strategic vehicle for businesses big and small to engage, entertain and inform consumers.

Recently, Google Canada’s Head of Media Solutions, Marshall Self, sat down with the Financial Post to discuss the disconnect between the popularity of YouTube in Canada and the slow adoption of YouTube as a strategic opportunity by Canada’s largest companies. You can read the interview here.

Fortunately, it’s not all doom and gloom for corporate Canada. Over the past few years, some Canadian businesses are realizing the power of sight, sound and motion, which gives them the ability to engage, delight, and even surprise consumers. McDonald's Canada created an international buzz with their food quality campaign, answering consumers questions such as “Why does your food look different in the advertising than what’s in the store?”, which has been viewed more than 8.4 million times.

Ford Canada recently got in the game hiring YouTube filmmaker and Montreal native Patrick Boivin (of Dragon Baby fame) to create a video for the Ford Escape. The resulting zombie-themed video has been viewed more than 500,000 times between Ford Canada’s and Patrick Boivin’s YouTube channels.

This video does more than just entertain and inform, according to Ford it also led to a 12% jump in favorability for the vehicle. You can read more about this campaign and the growing importance of YouTube for Canadian advertisers in the Globe and Mail.

While Canada’s largest companies are only starting to scratch the surface of the strategic opportunities of the YouTube platform, what about Canada’s small businesses? In the U.S., we have seen companies like Orabrush use YouTube to build a multi-million dollar business. Dollar Shave Club became a viral sensation when they posted their first video on YouTube. With a majority of Canada’s small businesses still without a web presence of any kind, YouTube offers yet another opportunity for Canadian entrepreneurs to leverage the power to market and grow their businesses.

Do you know of a Canadian company that is using YouTube as an effective tool for their business? Do you have a favourite Canadian marketing campaign on YouTube? Share with us on Google+. We want to hear from you!

Providing people with warnings and information before severe weather hits is critical to helping ensure safety. Google Public Alerts is a platform designed to provide accurate and relevant emergency alerts when and where you need them. An alert will appear on your desktop or mobile screens when you search for relevant keywords such as flood or with location-based queries like Toronto. On Android devices running Google Now, alerts will appear automatically on Cards.

We couldn’t have launched Public Alerts in Canada without Public Safety Canadaand Environment Canada.Their meteorological data will ensure our users are notified of severe weather when relevant. We also appreciate their commitment to open data standards such as the Common Alerting Protocol (CAP).

Here are example alerts in Canada surfaced on Search from a mobile device and Google Maps Mobile

For more information, or to see all active public alerts, visit our homepage at www.google.org/publicalerts. If you are a data provider, we also provide instructions here that will help you get your emergency data ready for Google Public Alerts.

We’re always working to improve Public Alerts, so please send us your feedback using the link at the far right of our Google Public Alerts homepage.

Tune in here on Monday,April 22 at 1:30 pm ET as the Governor General and his guests explore the many ways that hundreds of thousands of volunteers work together to improve the quality of life for all Canadians.

In Canada we clearly have an interest for K-Pop in general, searching for related terms such as “kpop star”, “kpop dance” and “kpop music” on YouTube.

Canadians Simon and Martina have become the world's leading English-language experts on Korean Pop on YouTube.
Simon and Martina are young English teachers in Korea, originally from Canada, who started a web-show on YouTube called Eat Your Kimchi. The show does very creative reviews of the latest Korean culture and has a big worldwide audience — +90 million video views and 318K+ subscribers. They are an example of a growing number of Canadian content creators that are building a brand and turning their passion into a career through YouTube, and becoming increasingly famous in Korea and around the world. ... and they have a Psy “Gentleman” (parody) - check it out!

Posted by Wendy Bairos, Google Canada
Psy has made a new video and once again he is topping popularity on on YouTube with Psy Gentelman. It has over 145 million videos already. Like the rest of the world, many Canadians are big fans, in fact it seems that Canadians are searching for “Psy” on YouTube even more than the U.S. audience; and more now than at the height of Psy’s Gangnam style popularity last year.
In Canada we clearly have an interest for K-Pop in general, searching for related terms such as “kpop star”, “kpop dance” and “kpop music” on YouTube.

Canadians Simon and Martina have become the world's leading English-language experts on Korean Pop on YouTube.
Simon and Martina are young English teachers in Korea, originally from Canada, who started a web-show on YouTube called Eat Your Kimchi. The show does very creative reviews of the latest Korean culture and has a big worldwide audience — +90 million video views and 318K+ subscribers. They are an example of a growing number of Canadian content creators that are building a brand and turning their passion into a career through YouTube, and becoming increasingly famous in Korea and around the world. ... and they have a Psy “Gentleman” (parody) - check it out!